I've been lurking here all summer, soaking up what information I can, so I'll start with a quick introduction.

I was born in, raised in, and haven't moved from the mountains of southern Vermont, nowhere near a sizable body of water. I've been curious about kayaking for some time, but never tried it.

A couple of years ago, I stumbled across Wolfgang Brinck's excellent Greenland kayak instructions on the Instructables website. The first night, I read all seven sections from beginning to end. From that point on, I had it firmly planted in my head that I wanted to build a kayak. I read and re-read the instructions during the winter months, and sort of half planned on building a boat "someday". At some point I came across this forum, and spent evenings looking at all the great kayaks that folks were building.

In April, "someday" came. I finally convinced my wife that I was serious about building a kayak, and she finally relented, probably knowing that if she didn't, I'd keep talking about it, or find an even worse hobby to take up.

So, with very little woodworking experience, and zero kayaking experience, I spent the summer building the Elizabeth Rose, a boat named after my daughters. The name is a combination of their middle names.

I basically tinkered on the boat here and there throughout the summer, sometimes only spending a few minutes a night, and other times leaving it for a couple of weeks with no progress. I decided to build it entirely with hand tools, and mostly I stuck to that (the ribs were cut on a table saw, and my drill was electric). Not having a workshop, I was forced to work outside, so weather also played a big part in my build.

This evening was my kayak's maiden voyage. I just wanted to share a photo, and thank everyone for the inspiration this group has given a new builder. My kayak is nowhere near perfect, but it was fun to build, and hopefully others who are thinking about giving building a try can see that even a complete novice can build a functional boat.

Final length for the boat came in at 17'5", with a beam of 23". I'm not sure of the weight, but I had no trouble lifting it up onto the top of my car.

For those who are interested, I kept a photo-journal of the building process: http://www.flickr.com/photos/12534314@N04/sets/72157626616939804/with/5919474928/

Included at the end of that gallery are a few short videos that my wife shot of my first kayaking experience. My favorite is the short clip where she comments "Well, he hasn't sunk yet..."

Now, to get some proper instructions on how this paddling thing is supposed to work...

-Elroy